Animation / Waltz with Bashir

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Waltz with Bashir (Hebrew: ואלס עם באשיר‎ - Vals Im Bashir) is a 2008 Israeli animated documentary film written and directed by Ari Folman. It depicts Folman in search of his lost memories from the 1982 Lebanon War and won numerous awards, including being nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

This film provides examples of:

Action-Hogging Opening: The film's opening, which follows a pack of dogs tearing through a city, is its most fast-paced and visually dynamic sequence.

Alone in a Crowd: Happens to Folman after his first tour in Lebanon to show his alienation from society.

Angry Guard Dog: A soldier must shoot twenty-six dogs because their barking would alert the wanted Palestinians, and the dead dogs begin haunting him some 20 years later.

Anticlimax: Near the end of the movie, after the true intention of the Phalangists is discovered, we see how the news of the massacre wanders up the ranks of the IDF. When it finally hits an Israeli officer who cares and takes action, it's already morning. We then see a military jeep driving up to the Phalangists, a man gets out, picks up a bullhorn... and says in a deadpan voice: "Stop the shooting". The Phalangists stop, the surviving refugees return to their destroyed camp, and the man drives off again.

Apathetic Citizens: At one scene showing a battle between the Israeli soldiers and the militants, Lebanese civilians were watching the whole battle from their balconies as if they were just watching a drive-by movie, without caring if they might get shot.

A-Team Firing: The IDF soldiers that invade Lebanon fire at everything. Not everything that moves. Everything.

The Atoner: Folman's story of the search for his lost memories, as well as the very reason he lost them in the first place, is of guilt over whatever happened on the night of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. While he didn't directly participate, Folman cannot deal with the guilt of having been one of the Israeli soldiers whose job was to launch flares into the sky above the city- the light from which allowed the Phalangists to commit their atrocities. The "falling stars" from his vision are actually flares.

Child Soldiers: Frenkel tells the director how he and his troop were attacked by a child with an RPG in an orchard and had to shoot him.

Cruel Mercy: Boaz told his superiors that he "could never shoot a human being". So they gave him a silencer and told him to take out their dogs instead. The dogs began to haunt his dreams from that moment on.

A Date with Rosie Palms: An officer gives Folman instructions while watching a German porn movie and engaging in this.

Dream Intro: The film opens with a fast-paced and visually dynamic sequence of a pack of dogs tearing through a city. The scene turns out to be the recurring nightmare of a supporting cast member.

Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The director presents his ex-girlfriend this way. She dumped him on the same week that he shipped out, and he has visions and dreams of her during his experience at war. The director's wife objected to how pretty she looks in the film.

Soundtrack Dissonance: In a few scenes, the film uses classical music and rocking 80's singles over scenes of war.

Some of those songs seem to be written specifically about the Lebanon War, however.

Survivor's Guilt: Ronny Dayag, who is the only member of his tank crew to survive.

Title Drop: During a heavy firefight in the streets of Beirut, when Shmuel Frenkel wrestles a gun away from another soldier and charges alone out into the open, firing wildly:

Folman: Whether an eternity or just a minute, there was Frenkel at the junction with bullets flying past him in every direction. Without crossing the junction, I saw him dancing, as if in a trance. He cursed the shooters, like he wanted to stay there forever. As if he wanted to show off his waltz amid the gunfire, with the posters of Bashir above his head."

Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: Ronny Dayag was abandoned by his unit on the battlefield by the shore. He hid until nightfall and then swam to safety.

Trauma-Induced Amnesia: The driving force of the film is the main character's search for his memories of the war.

War Is Hell: The director stated that he intended to show that war is awful, and to not give the audience any heroic characters to emulate. Indeed, the stories people tell generally reflect poorly on the IDF in general and them in particular.

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